Residential property transactions within the UK have been working 15% increased for the primary eight months of the yr in contrast with the identical interval in 2024, reveals Coventry Building Society’s knowledge on the newest HMRC figures exhibits.
The knowledge, which tracks transactions between January and August 2025, discovered March noticed a surge, with transactions greater than doubling year-on-year at 106% as patrons rushed to finish earlier than the Stamp Duty adjustments.
Meanwhile, exercise fell sharply by 27% in April and remained decrease in May, with an 11% drop in comparison with final yr.
In June and July there was a bounce again, with transactions climbing again to only above 2024 ranges, up practically 3% in June and nearly 5% in July.
Transactions had been up 2% in August, in comparison with the yr prior, with Budget speculations beginning.
The Chancellor is broadly reported to be contemplating main reforms for property taxation, together with scrapping Stamp Duty for patrons and introducing a brand new tax for sellers of properties value greater than £500,000.
Other choices which can be rumoured to be underneath evaluate embody permitting homebuyers to pay Stamp Duty in instalments and adjustments to Capital Gains Tax.
The Autumn Budget is ready for 26 November.
Coventry Building Society head of middleman relationships Jonathan Stinton says: “It’s been a yr of ups and downs for the housing market, however general transactions have been working increased than final yr, which exhibits simply how decided persons are to maneuver. Buyers rushed in March, took a breather in Spring, after which got here again in drive over Summer. That resilience is a constructive signal.”
“Since the hypothesis was introduced in August, we’ve already began to really feel the temper shifting. Conversations with patrons and mortgage brokers counsel some persons are starting to carry again whereas they wait to see what the Chancellor pronounces.”
“The housing market doesn’t like uncertainty, and rumours of massive adjustments are sufficient to make individuals hesitate – or threat making the fallacious alternative.”
“As we get nearer to twenty sixth November patrons could also be tempted to push pause on their choices in case Stamp Duty is scrapped and so they save hundreds of kilos in a single day.”
“That type of hesitation is comprehensible, but it surely creates a stop-start market. If reforms are coming they should be clear and thoroughly thought by means of so individuals can transfer with confidence reasonably than cautiously ready on the sidelines.”
